A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 2

Wolbert Smidt

A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian

Kingdoms (8th Century)
The visit of Du Huan to Molin-guo and Laobosa

(Du huan in chinese)

1 Ancient contacts between China and the Aksumite kingdom, in today's Ethiopia and Eritrea,
are mentioned from time to time by scholars1 and seem to be well established. But only
very few publications go into more detail. Even if there were no historical or archaeological
evidence, it would, however, at least be likely that Chinese and Aksumites did know of each
other. The presence of Indian merchants, who were also in commercial contact with Chinese
coastal towns, at the Adulis coast is attested in ancient texts and can also indirectly be drawn
from archaeological findings of coins from ancient India in Eritrea and Ethiopia2. Red-Sea-
merchants are also known to have been present in India, coming into direct contact with
Chinese there3. Early Chinese sources of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) mention
products from the "South" like pearls, tortoise shells, incense and spices, part of which might
have been imported from the Red Sea area - in exchange with silk4. Silk is one of the goods
from China, which has probably reached the Red Sea already in early times5. The 1st century
Periplus Maris Erythraei, which is one of the few ancient Greek sources on the Red Sea, also
describes the Chinese coast and mentions silk as a trade product along the coasts of the Indian
Ocean6.
2 This is just to refer to some examples, which make it exciting to go further in the search for
other cultural influences or exchanges which might reach not only as far as to the Agaeïs in the
Mediterranean Sea in the North, but also as far as to the Indian and Chinese Ocean in the Far
East. Traditionally scholars concentrated on influences on ancient Ethiopian history coming
from Southern Arabia, ancient Egypt and Greece - leaving apart the most important influences
from inner Africa which are still very much ignored7 -, but in the future we might still find
more about aspects of Asian influences8.
3 Contacts with China in ancient sources
Aksum in late antiquity played a considerable international role. As a power controlling the
African shores of the Southern Red Sea, it served as an intermediary between the Byzantine
- Arabic trade routes and the Indian Ocean - and thus became an interesting potential ally
to Byzantium. To give one example : several sources mention the wish of the East-Roman
emperor Justinian to control the route to India via the Red Sea in the 6th century9. With the
help of its ally Aksum, the Persian incursions into Southern Arabia were then, in fact, halted ;
South Arabia was occupied by the Aksumites and trade routes were secured. As Procopius
Caesarensis reports in his De bello persico, the East-Romans had always purchased silk from
the Persians, their enemies ; now there was hope that silk trade would become possible by
sea, which connected Aksum with India a project which wasn't realised, however, as the ports
on the way to India were controlled by the Persians. The influence of Indian scripts on the
development of the Ge'ez script shows the cultural impact of the presence of Asians at the
Aksumite court10.
4 The Greek traveller Cosmas Indikopleustes, allegedly a merchant turned into a Byzantine
monk, in his detailed Universal Christian Topography (545 A.D.) describes the trade routes

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 A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 3

of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, joining as remote areas as Adulis, the Ethiopian port,
and China :
5 Ceylon "being as it is in a central position is much frequented by ships from all parts of India
and from Persia and Ethiopia (...) And from the remotest countries, I mean Tzinista [China]
and other trading places, it receives silk, aloe, cloves, sandalwood and other products, and
these in turn are passed on to markets this side, such as Malê, Kalliana (...) Persia and the
Homerite [Himyarite] country (...) and Adulis11. "The sinologist Philip Snow notes that Ceylon
was a place, where Chinese and Adulite merchants should have met occasionally12. There are
Chinese travel accounts on Ceylon especially of the 5th century, mentioning the presence of
a number of foreign merchants there. Cosmas himself notes that traders from Adulis were in
fact in Ceylon. Contrary to Arab and Indian traders, the Chinese were not very active in sea
commerce during most of the periods in their history. However, there were periods, during
which they entered into active contact with Western and South-Western kingdoms. In fact,
there are Chinese sources of the Han dynasty which seem to contain information on the African
coast of the Red Sea.
6 Several sources mention the kingdom "Huang-tchi" in the Western Sea (recorded between the
1st century B.C. and 1st century A.D.), which has been located in Africa. From the ancient
descriptions of the travel by boat (analysed by Herrmann 1913), we know that it took over one
year. Therefore it seems clear, that it was far from India, in a Western direction. It had been
suggested that it corresponded to today's Eritrean coast, "Huang-tchi" being a deformation of
"Ag'azi"13 . Recent archaeological findings reconfirm that the Eritrean highland areas close to
the coast had already reached the stage of state formation very long time ago, but certainly
in the period concerned. The product, which was sent by the Huang-tchi-ruler to the Chinese
emperor, is African - a living rhinoceros. Rhinoceros horn is known from other sources of the
same period as an African export product traded in the Indian Ocean14; also tortoise-shell and
ivory are exported by Huang-tchi15.
7 One more source of the 1st century A.D., the Houhan Shu, might also refer to the Eritrean
coast : Gan Ying, a Chinese envoy to the East Roman regions via the sea in the year 97 A.D.,
never reached Egypt - but a country called "Dou-le". This has recently been identified as
Adulis16, the ancient port of today's Eritrea. The envoy Gan Ying returned with an embassy
from "Dou-le" to Luoyang, the Han capital. We don't, however, know much today on this
period of Northeast-African history, called "Pre-Aksumite".
8 T'ang dynasty contacts to Africa
Much better documented, mainly through inscriptions, is the later period of the Aksumite
kingdom, which was at the peak of its power in the 4th - 6th centuries A.D. In China the centre
was weak in that time ; only under the T'ang dynasty (618 - 906 A.D.) did China win back its
strength and some interest for foreign peoples reappeared. Therefore, the first dynasty which
might again provide information on African ports after the Han is the T'ang dynasty. Snow
provides us with a map showing localities at the East African coast where Chinese porcelain
had been found. Unsurprisingly there are many findings at the Kenyan coast, but also some at
the African Red Sea coast near major ports in the Northern Somalia-Djibouti-area, especially
near Zayla', and Northern Sudan / Eritrea, near the Sudanese'Aydhâb, from the 14th century,
and near the port Badi north of Adulis, from the T'ang Dynasty17. There is written evidence
that 9th century T'ang dynasty merchants were present not only in India, but further West in
Islamic areas18 - following their ancestors, who seem to have travelled to the Red Sea already
in the 5th century19 -, which suggests, that some of them may have continued to ports at the
African coast.
9 A research for additional ancient Chinese texts, reflecting those contacts, could therefore be
promising and might serve as a minor source for the understanding of the history of the Horn of
Africa20. For example, we already know about one 9th century T'ang dynasty text mentioning

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"Bo-ba-li", the Berber coast (Somaliland) - about which later. Extracts in an ancient Chinese
encyclopaedia of an 8th century text refer to the travel of a Chinese to Northeast Africa. The
source itself had been lost. But the fragments are giving us an important impression of the
geographical knowledge in this period of competition with their ambitious Arab neighbors.
10 Du Huan : From Uzbekistan to Molin-guo and Laobosa
In the case of the traveller Du Huan, it were the Arabic contacts to the African coast of the
Red Sea which led to this early encounter between a black people and a Chinese. And the
water-ways, which were used by Indians, secured his way back21. A military disaster in today's
Uzbekistan was the initial catastrophe which led to the encounter between representatives of
China and - as I will show - the Aksumite kingdom, two ancient "world powers"22.
11 Du Huan from Wannian23, an officer of the T'ang dynasty army, was involved in a catastrophic
defeat for the Chinese near Tashkent in the year 751 and was captured together with over
20,000 other Chinese soldiers by the "Dashi" (the Arabs) and then brought to "Yajuluo" (near
Baghdad in Iraq), the centre of the Abbasid caliphate24. Most Chinese prisoners became gold-
and silversmiths, painters, weavers, and paper fabricants. After long journeys through Arab
countries, Du Huan returned by ship to Kanton (Guangzhou). There he wrote his Jingxingji
("Record of My Travels"), which was almost completely lost except a few extracts, which
give information on central Asian and Arab countries among others.
12 His relative Du You (735-812) in his encyclopaedia Tongdian mentions Du Huan's travels
with the following words, in a chapter discussing the defense of the borders to the West :
13 "The relative Huan was fighting in the West under General Gao Xianzhi ; in the 10th year
of the government device Tianbao [751] he arrived at the Western Ocean ; in the first year
of the government device Baoying [762] he returned to Kanton on board of a trade ship and
wrote the Jingxingji."
14 There are seven more notes on Du Huan's travels in Du You's encyclopaedia. On Molin, Du
Huan himself is quoted as following :
15 "We also went to Molin, Southwest of Yangsaluo25. One reaches this country after having
crossed the great desert and having travelled 2,000 Li26. The people there are black, their
customs rough. There is little rice and cereals and there is no grass and trees. The horses are
fed with dried fish, the people eat XX [word not identified] and also Persian dates. Subtropical
diseases [Malaria] are widespread. After crossing the inland there is a mountainous country27,
there are a lot of confessions.
16 The followers of the confession of the "Dashi" (the Arabs) have a means to denote the degrees
of family relations, but it is degenerated and they don't bother about it. They don't eat the meat
of pigs, dogs, donkeys and horses, they don't respect neither the king of the country, neither
their parents, they don't believe in supernatural powers, they perform sacrifice to heaven and
to no one else. According their customs every seventh day is a holiday, on which no trade
and no cash transactions are done, whereas when they drink alcohol, they are behaving in a
ridiculous and undisciplined way during the whole day.
17 Within the East Roman confession28 the medical doctors know diarrhoea - or they recognise
it already before the outbreak of the disease, or they open the brain and insects come out."
18 Another passage in which Du Huan gives a brief geographical overview has been preserved
in another work, the XinT'angshu of Ouyang Xiu. In chapter 221 (Dashi-zhuan) he notes :
19 "Coming from Fulin29 (Baizhanting30) one reaches, after having crossed the desert in
a Southwestern direction and having travelled for 2,000 Li, a country called Molin31,
respectively Laobosa."
20 Snow and Shen both think that Du Huan's mention of a third religion, the "Zimzim
teaching" (in pinyin : Xunxun) in another fragment is also referring to Molin32. This is certainly
due to the fact that the Molin-fragment mentions "many religions", but stops while describing
the second. A third religion or confession, therefore, should be the "Zimzim" (or Zemzem).

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This is an Arabic term, in its strict sense meaning the Zoroastrians of Persia33, but in a wider
sense pagans in general. The Zimzim "practise incest, and in this respect are worst of all
the barbarians34". In fact some peoples of the African coast (such as the Beja, known as
rebellious subjects of the Aksumite kingdom already from 4th century inscriptions), were
neither Christians nor Muslims - the Beja were only christianised in the course of the 8th and
9th centuries. Other peoples in the area are, still today, following traditional religions.
21 Further notes on Du Huan's travel report Jingxingji are found in the Taiping yulan, the Taiping
huanyu ji, the Tongzhi and the Wenxuan tongkao, but without giving more information on
Molin35.
22 Identification of the countries visited Theories
The discussion on which area exactly should be identified with Molin has brought a number
of ancient African locations at the Red Sea coast and the Indian Ocean to our attention. A
Chinese encyclopaedia of 1995 still notes that the location of Molin is not know36. After the
publication of an important article in Chinese37, however, we have some convincing results,
even if the exact etymology at least of Molin will stay subject to discussion. Over about
130 years a number of theories were developed, but all of them agreed that Molin should be
located in Africa. We don't have many hints. It should be noted that the distance, which is
given only roughly, was 2,000 Li (which corresponds to 1300 km approximately), and that
the country Molin was lying in a Southwestern direction, seen from Jerusalem. If we follow
this information, we probably have to locate the country visited somewhere in the Sudan or
south of it and as we know that Du Huan left Molin by sea, it should be a coastal country.
23 First theories
The first one who tried to locate Molin was Bretschneider in 1871, who identified it with the
countries of the "moors", Mauritania or Libya. However, this doesn't fit into what we know
about its approximate location. In 1885 the sinologist Friedrich Hirth, who referred to the
above mentioned passage of the XinT'angshu, located Molin and Laobosa at the African Red
Sea coast, in the area of the "Troglodytes" (the ancient Greek denomination of the inhabitants
of the African Red Sea coast)38. Later in 1909, he underlined that Molin should be an East
African state, but couldn't locate it more precisely39.
24 Molin = Malindi
In the early 15th century Cheng Ho (in pinyin : Zheng He), the famous Muslim eunuque
admiral of the great Ming dynasty fleet, discovered the Eastern coast of Africa. Sailing via
the Persian Gulf his ships first reached Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, and then travelled
further South to Somalia and the Kenyan coast. The fleet made several expeditions from 1417
to 1433, before the exploration was stopped probably for economic reasons. The identification
of 8th century Molin with Malindi in Kenya40, which played such a prominent role in the
Chinese discovery of Africa, is rather a result of Zheng He's fame, but doesn't correspond
to Du Huan's texts. Malindi barely existed in the 8th century ; the multitude of confessions
described by Du Huan and the allusion to disrespected kings doesn't seem to correspond to its
past. But even more important is the argument, that Malindi could not in any way be reached
after a journey from Jerusalem through a desert, followed by a mountainous country. A much
more complicated journey through the land would have been necessary - and it was much
longer distance than 2,000 Li.
25 Molin = the god "Mahrem"
Others locate it much more in the North, in the distance reported by Du Huan. It had been
suggested that Molin should be another form of "Mahrem", the name of the Aksumite "sea
god"41 But Mahrem, the most important god of Aksumite kings, was actually a god of war, not
of the sea, and possibly linked with the moon42. No area was called after any god in that region.
And, even more important, in the 8th century the ancient South Semitic gods had not been
worshipped any more since centuries. Only one inscription could possibly suggest that the

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name of Mahrem might have survived for some time the rise of Christianism : in the mid-4th
century trilingual inscription of king Ezana, which refers to three South-Semitic gods, new
Christian monotheistic conceptions seem to have been linked with Mahrem, which appears
as the ancestor of the king43. Only shortly afterwards Ezana adopted Christianism as a state
religion. But after this isolated and only partial identification of Mahrem with characteristics
of the Christian god, Mahrem doesn't appear any more. So, this theory still stays highly
improbable.
26 Molin = Malaô
Surprisingly Molin has, so far, not been identified with the city of Malaô in the country of
the "Barbaroi" on the Horn of Africa, corresponding to today's Berbera in Somaliland. The
anonymous Periplus Maris Erythraei of the 1st century A.D. provides us with very detailed
information for seafarers on the ports of the Red Sea, on the natural conditions, on trade and
products, and, quite roughly, also on the political status of the regions bordering the Red Sea
and the Indian Ocean. The names of places and peoples are given in Greek, but often are
corrupt forms of local names. Locations of ports are described so exactly, that they are still
identifiable today.
27 Malaô was a port of the Berbera people, an ancient Somali group. Since the 13th century the
name Berbera is recorded for the port, but the people's denomination is considerably more
ancient. The original form of the Greek denomination Malaô is not known. Etymologically
it might be connected in some way to the Somali (mentioned first in 15th century Ethiopian
chronicles) - and the similarity to Molin is striking. It should, however, be noted that the
multitude of confessions cannot be applied to the Berbera land. In the 8th century, they
were already, at least partially, islamized and not subject of any kingdom. Quite important
is another fact, still. There is another Chinese source of the 9th century which can be related
to Berbera (Arabic Barbara)44. The area is called "Bo-ba-li", a denomination which was still
used several centuries later in Chinese geographical texts45. It produced ivory and ambergris.
The description of the people is worth to be quoted here, as the Somali nomads are clearly
recognisable ; still today a mixture of raw blood and milk is consumed by several peoples of
the Horn of Africa :
28 They "do not eat the Five Grains, but only meat. They are given to sticking a needle into the
veins of their cattle and drawing out the blood, which they mix with milk and consume raw.
They wear no clothes, but merely use goatskins to cover the parts below their waists46."
29 Molin, however, never appears in this context, which makes it improbable that it was located
in the Malaô area. It should, however, be noted that this is the second ancient T'ang dynasty
text providing information on an African area.
30 Molin = Meroe
Recently it had been suggested that Molin should correspond to "Meroe"47 If we can accept
the hypothesis that the place-name Meroe still existed in that time it is a possible solution,
even if the state of Meroe had collapsed long before (it had been raided in ca. 350 A.D. by
the emergent Aksumite kingdom). But the name had not completely disappeared. The centre
of the Christian Nubian State of Napata, a successor state of Meroe to the North in today's
Egypt, is the city today called Merowi. It is possible that Du Huan went to a settlement with
this name, and derived the country's name from the city. In fact, names of countries were often
derived from settlements in ancient Northeast-Africa ; and such names often survived locally
for long. Geographically it would perfectly correspond to the few data we have. It is not farer
away than 2,000 Li approximately, it can be reached after a long journey through the desert,
trade routes link it with a mountainous country (Abyssinia) and with coastal ports, from where
merchants sailed to South Arabia and even further to India.
31 Molin = Muqurra

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I myself would suggest an etymological connection with Muqurra, another ancient Christian
Nubian kingdom south of Napata, which was centered in the city of Dongola (Dunqula). In
the sources it also appears as al-Muqurra or as Mekuria. The unpronouncable "q" would have
been left out (the "o" of Molin is long and has a falling and rising tone, which might point
to a consonant between two vowels which had been dropped), the "r" replaced by "l", which
would lead to a word similar to Molin. I believe, that this solution would be preferable to an
etymological connection to Meroe. However, this would not change our idea about the area
visited by Du Huan ; in contrary, it reconfirms it. The kingdoms of Napata and of Muqurra
had merged before ca. 700 due to pressure by Arab armies (Egypt had been conquered in 640),
the capital now becoming Dongola - and the name of Muqurra being used for the kingdom
(which only in later sources was called the kingdom of Dongola
32 after its capital). Trade routes linked it with ports like'Aydhâb and Badi north of the Aksumite
port of Adulis and to the Christian Aksumite kingdom in the highlands, with which close
connections are documented especially in the mid-8th century48. In competition with Islam
the bishop Barnabas in 700 A.D. tried to christianise the Beja at the coast, while he was
ministering the Christian merchants of the port of'Aydhâb. This also makes it possible, that
Du Huan also understood the whole coastal areas as part of Molin (today corresponding to
the Sudanese and north Eritrean coast). The expansion of Christianism was followed by a
rise of a puritanical Islamic movement in the nearby Barka valley (today an Eritrean region
bordering the Sudan) in 759 A.D. and finally reaching the highlands in 765. Some connection
with Dongola had already been suggested by Shen, which I think can be reinforced by this
etymological argument49.
33 Laobosa = al-Habasha
Finally, the geographical description and the second geographical term indicate which region
is referred to by Du Huan. He mentions a great desert to be crossed ; and in fact we know
that from ancient times the way through the Sudanese desert led to the edges of the Ethiopian
highland, a trade route used since times immemorial. The only mountainous country which
lies in this direction is highland Ethiopia, which was dominated by the Aksumite kingdom.
The term "Laobosa" is easily identifiable : it can only be "al-Habasha", the ancient High
Arabic term used for the Ethiopian highlands and its kingdom50. This appearance is already an
interesting fact, as it is one more example for the use of this term51.
34 The term al-Habasha is very ancient52. In the Ethiopian region it regularly appears in the
mid-4th century inscriptions of the Aksumite king Ezana53, who controlled the Ethiopian
highlands and the coast of Adulis, and had subdued a number of people even as far as Meroe.
In classical Arabic this term is territorial (etymologically it is at the origin of the European
term "Abyssinia"54). It corresponds perfectly to the Chinese "Laobosa", which equally was
a territorial denomination55. Also in al-?abarî's Annals (9th/10th century) "al-Habasha" is
a geographical term in contrast to the ethnonym "al-Habash". The Arab historiographer
ibn Wadîh al-Ya'qûbî in his 9th century History describes "al-Habasha", lying north of the
countries of the Berber (Somali) and of the Zanj (the "Blacks"). All these three terms appear
later in Chinese sources ; it can generally be noted, that all early Chinese geographical terms
related to Africa were Arabic loanwords.
35 Du Huan's text mentions an erosion of state power, which corresponds to what we know
from the late Aksumite kingdom, in which the central power was weakened, and especially
on the coastal areas at least partially lost control after the Islam had started to dominate the
coastal plains in the 7th century56. The way how Du Huan uses both terms, Molin and Laobosa,
doesn't make it clear, if two neighbouring regions were meant or if it was only one region. It
had been suggested that they were the same57. But Du Huan's text doesn't exclude that it is
two countries58. The verb connecting the words Molin and Laobosa means "say" in ancient

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Chinese. It is possible to translate this passage as "countries called Molin and Laobosa" instead
of "a country called Molin, respectively Laobosa" as we did above. For this case Shen suggests
that Laobosa should lie further south.
36 If we can believe that Molin was a derivation of Muqurra, and also taking into account
the fact that it was only 2,000 Li far from Jerusalem (which is enough to reach the Sudan,
but not highland Ethiopia), we should understand the terms as denoting two neighbouring
countries, but closely interrelated (which was in fact the case between the Aksumite and
Nubian kingdoms). It seems that the term Molin has been used to roughly denote the lowlands,
including the coastal regions. Du Huan left Molin by boat ; for this he should have used a port,
which was frequented by Arabic or possibly
37 Indian ships. This suggests that it had been Adulis, the outlet to the sea of the Aksumite
kingdom, or, as this port was in decline in that period, Badi.
38 The year in which Du Huan visited and left Molin
We know that Du Huan came back to China in 762 A.D., probably in June due to the monsoon.
He should have left the African port of Molin at least in the year before, in 761 A.D., if we
consider that he had first to make the journey via the Persian Gulf to India and then further.
This date is most interesting, as it might even provide a reason explaining why Du Huan has
visited Molin at all. As Molin should be identified with areas in today's Sudan and Eritrea,
historical events of that time might be connected with his travel. In fact, the year 758 was of
crucial importance for the Christian kingdom at Dongola. Dongola had broken off with Egypt
in the 740s, which led to subsequent wars. As a result the king of Dongola had to send his son
to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad in 758, as a hostage. This was followed by an exchange of
embassies. This might well have been the occasion which brought Du Huan, who was based
in Iraq, to these Southern kingdoms and provided him with a chance to travel back to China by
sea. Shen speculates that Du Huan accompanied the Dongola prince back to his country59 ; we
know that foreigners often acquired a position at Arabic courts, this might also have been the
case with Du Huan60. In addition to that, we know that the Nubian kingdoms especially in the
8th century were in contact, both economically and politically, with the Aksumite kingdom.
This would easily explain the mention of “Laobosa” (al-Habasha). The attractiveness of this
hypothesis is certainly undeniable. But Du Huan's fragments don't give us any reason for his
wide travels.
39 Ethnographical information
Du Huan's ethnographical sketches concern both the highlands (al-Habasha / Laobosa) and
the desert lowlands near the sea. The highlands, which lie further "inland", are characterised
by a great number of religions. His description of the region and its peoples is vivid, even if
brief. The T'ang dynasty's understanding of Islam and Christianism is perfectly reproduced in
Du Huan's text : they adore the heaven and no one else. The T'ang dynasty China knew both
religions, Nestorian Christianism was well established61. The diversity of religions described
by Du Huan corresponds to the late Aksumite kingdom and its coastal areas, Islam and
Christianism mixing with ancient traditional religions in that time of continuous loss of power
of the Aksumites and the rise of Islam at the coast. Still today traditional religions are practised
in the Eritrean inland in some remote Kunama areas. These people, who lived most of the time
outside direct control of any states, preserved an original local religion for very long.
40 From Du Huan's descriptions we get a clear picture of a hot desert landscape at the coast :
dry fish are fed to horses, there is a lack of cereals, there are no trees at all. This was in fact
true for all coastal areas from the Sudan to the Eritrean coast. Further details can easily be
related to the Aksumite kingdom : people take rest every seven days (practised in Islam and
Christianism), they don't eat the meat of pigs (which is typical not only for Muslims, but also
for Abyssinian Christians until today), alcohol is a traditional beverage, also for Muslims.
Muslims are indirectly described as traders - as they stop their trade every seventh day - and

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they are acquainted with money. Certainly they traded also with Persia, as Persian dates are
mentioned. In fact, Muslim traders also lived in the Abyssinian highlands in scattered villages
amidst Christian areas and still do today. Genealogy still today is an important part of the
identity of the people and do have a complex system of denoting degrees of blood relations
- which corresponds to Du Huan's remark on the Muslims, who denote the different degrees
of family relations. His remark, that they however don't care about it, seems to point to the
decline of social stability of that period.
41 Traditional medicine is described as strong among Christians ; as Christians were holders of
the traditions of the Aksumite court, it is possible, that they also had deeper knowledge of it
than the Muslim traders. Medicine in today's Ethiopia and Eritrea is in fact relying on very
old traditions, often preserved within the low clergy of the Christian church, some practises
preserving knowledge from ancient treatises which arrived in Aksum during the Byzantine
Empire. It might be a bit surprising to hear that "they open the brain" ; but this
42 should correspond to a very ancient medical practise still known today in rural areas of Eritrea
and Ethiopia. Many diseases are healed by cutting the skin of the forehead, the eyebrow or
the cheek. Then blood pours out and, together with it the bad spirit ("insects"), which caused
the disease. Diarrhoea, also mentioned by Du Huan, is extremely widespread and traditional
medicine is well known against it. Thus, Du Huan's notes correspond well to the coastal areas
of today's Eritrea and give us a glimpse on the life in the late, politically weakened Aksumite
kingdom.
43 Conclusion
Indirect contacts between the Northeast African coast and China, mostly based on trade, seem
to be documented since at least the 1st century A.D. (Han dynasty). This article focused on
the first Chinese, whose presence in Africa is clearly documented. The geographical curiosity
of the T'ang dynasty made it possible, that extracts of an 8th century travel report of a Chinese
military officer, Du Huan, were documented and preserved. He visited Arabic countries and
also Africa. The location of Molin-guo, an African country, seems to be clarified today. South
of it lies Laobosa, the first mention of Abyssinia in an ancient Chinese source ; Molin should
be located in a dry desert lowland in the Sudan and Eritrea62. This text is thus one of the very
few ancient sources contemporary to the late Aksumite kingdom. Briefly, but with significant
details, the peoples' customs are described, most of them still identifiable today.
44 What makes the text fragments on Molin important, is, first, that it is the most ancient source
which provides evidence of the presence of a Chinese in Africa63. Most other sources only
reflect the fact that products from the African Red Sea coast reached China. Second, it is among
the very few ancient sources contemporary to the Aksumite kingdom. Third, the Du Huan
travel report fragments give an example on the ways used in that time to cross far distances.
Probably rather unusual is the fact, that Du Huan reached the mountainous region south of
Egypt by land ; how his way back was organised is not known in detail, but we know that
he reached Kanton in Southern China by boat - using the sea routes to India, which we know
from a few ancient sources. This shows that still in the period of decline, the sea trade from
the African coast was not halted. Fourth, the geographical notions mentioned are reflecting
information originating evidently in Arabic contacts, which is probably due to the fact that
during the decline of the Aksumite kingdom the Red Sea trade was already in the hands of the
Arabs. Finally, the brief descriptions of the multitude of religions give us an impression of the
coexistence of religions in this period, on which only very few sources exist.

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 A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 12

R. Voigt, 2001 : "Die abessiniche Schrift (Teil 1)", Selam Eritrea, 15/16, Hamburg - Mainz,
25-29.
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Notes
1 The first Ethiopian scholar to give an overview on contacts with China was Sergew Hable
Sellassie, 1972. See also the work of the sinologist and geographer Herrmann, 1913, who
first identified the far Western coastal kingdom of Huang-tchi (= "Ag'azi ?") with the Adulis
coast (1st century B.C./1st century A.D.). This kingdom must have laid West from India and
exported seemingly African products.
2 On a 3rd century hoard of Indian coins in Däbrä Damo in the Aksumite kingdom, see A.
Mordini, 1960.
3 Contacts between Yemenis and Chinese in India are reported already in the 5th century. In
his travel report, Fa Xian observed in the year 414 the presence of a large number of Yemeni
merchants in Ceylon. Cf. J. Legge (tr.), 1886, 104.
4 Cf. T. O. Höllmann, 1992, 411.
5 Silk started to be traded in Ptolemaic Egypt ca. 30 B.C., when Egyptian merchants entered
into the trade with India (A. Herrmann, 1913, 55). Later, silk played an important role at the
court of the Ethiopian kings.
6 It mentions the Chinese metropolis "Sinai" or "Thinai", which is a Sanskrit form of Ch'in,
the dynasty which had unified China (L. Casson, 1989, 238). From here the silk ("Chinese
cotton") is exported.
7 Already E. Haberland, 1965, recognised that the traditions of a Sacral Kingdom for instance
were not influenced by Hamitic or Semitic traditions, but were of very ancient inner-African
descent.
8 The origins of the art of silver jewellery in Northeast Africa for example might be related
to India, even traditional music might have been influenced by Indian musicians. I thank
Monsieur Michel Postel, directeur-fondateur of the Musée Asiatica at Biarritz (France), for
his enlightening comments on that question.
9 See Y. M. Kobischanow, 1969, 21 ; T. Natsoulas, 2002.
10 See R. Voigt, 2001, 25-29.
11 P. Snow, 1988, 3 ; E. O. Winstedt, 1909, 322, where the regions mentioned appear as
"Persis, Homiritia and Adulia".
12 P. Snow, 1988, 3.
13 Cf. A. Herrmann, 1913. Ag'azi is the name of a people dominating the area of today's
Eritrea / Northern Ethiopia in the pre-Aksumite period, known from a few inscriptions. The
pre-Aksumite kings - at least some of them - descended from the Ag'azi. Later, in the 6th
century, also the Ethiopian ex-vassal king of South Arabia, Abreha, seems to have claimed
descent from them. Cf. RIE, 1991, 8 (1-2), 5A (1-2), 10 (1-5) ; A. J. Drewes, 1956, 183.
14 The Periplus Maris Erythraei (op. cit., chapters 6 & 17) doesn't mention rhinoceros horn
exported from India, even if this would also be possible, but in chapter 4 mentions it as an
export product of Adulis.
15 A. Herrmann, 1913, 553 sq.

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 A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 13

16 Shen Fuwei, 1980, 50. The Chinese denomination as a "country" reminds of Cosmas who
several centuries later does not only refer to Adulis as a port, but once also lets it appear as
a country, as quoted above in footnote 14. This might correspond to some degree of local
autonomy. It should in fact be expected, that the region, split up in very different climatic
zones, before the rise of the Aksumites consisted of several independent areas. Epiphanius of
Constantia lists people living at the African shore of the Red Sea in the 3rd century, among
them the "Azomitorum cum (A)dulitibus", which according to L. Casson, 1989, 110 could in
fact mean that the coastal area was in that time ruled quite autonomously from the Aksumites.
17 P. Snow, 1988, 8 ; G. Mathew, 1956, 50-55.
18 "Suleiman, a ninth-century Arab trader, refers to the presence of massive Chinese ships at
Kulam-Malay in south-west India and at Siraf and Oman in the Gulf" (P. Snow, 1988, 8).
19 According to some recent authors Chinese sources confirm that Chinese junks sailed not
only to the Persian Gulf, but also the Red Sea at least from the 5th century A.D. during the
rule of the Liu-Sung dynasty already, cf. Jun-Yan Zhang, 1983 ; V. Christides, 1994, 34.
20 In a similar approach Stuart Munro-Hay is about to publish a text on a Chinese text on
Arabic history, written in the 18th century on the basis of ancient Persian sources. Interestingly
this text contains information on 5th century Aksum, which cannot be found in any other
source. It seems that it is based on lost Arabic sources.
21 An early Arabic term shows that ships were known, probably already in those times,
which were able to reach even China, markab sînî ("ship sailing to China"), cf. L. M. Devic,
1883-1886, 85.
22 As the Persian Mani put it in the 3rd century. According to him there were four "great
kingdoms" in the world: First Persia, second Rome, third Ethiopia and finally Silis (China),
cf. H. Ibscher, 1940, 188-190.
23 In Jingzhao, today the city of Xi'an in the province Shaanxi, cf. Chinese Great
Encyclopaedia, 1995.
24 Ibid.
25 Jerusalem, as it has also been called in the ancient text Weilue, cf. Shen Fuwei, 1980, 47.
Today, Jerusalem is transliterated as "Yelusaleng".
26 An ancient unit of measure, 2,000 Li corresponding to approximately 1,300 km.
27 In another version : "mountains and lakes one after the other".
28 Christianism.
29 In the T'ang period, the East Roman Empire was called Fulin. It is a derivation of the word
"Roma", transported via the Soghdian "From (Frum)", derived from the Persian "Hrom" (cf.
J. Tubach, 1999, 65). Du Huan in his Jingxingji notes : The empire of Fulin lies in the west
of the country Shan. It is seperated from it by mountains and several thousand Li, and is also
called Daqin” (cf. Shen Fuwei, 1980, 47). "Shan" is "Syria" (from Arab "Sham"), which had
been lost by the Byzantine Empire to the Muslim armies not long before. The toponym Fulin
is used for the whole East Roman territories, which had included Syria and Jerusalem until
the expansion of Islam. Du Huan has started his journey from its Southern borders.
30 Byzantium.
31 Here different characters are used than in the work of Du You, but in both cases it is
pronounced "Molin". Generally one can observe that Chinese prefer to transliterate foreign
toponyms using characters which would not constitute a meaning in Chinese. Thus, "Molin"
doesn't have any meaning in Chinese.
32 P. Snow, 1988, 3 sq. and Shen Fuwei, 1980, 48.
33 P. Snow, 1988, 4 even suggests that the Persians might have "imparted their Zoroastrian
creed to some of the coastal people". However, we don't have any other hints to Zoroastrian
beliefs at the coast, even if it cannot be rejected as completely impossible : some Afar groups at
the Eritrean coast claim Persian origin (D. Morin, 1998, 53 n° 3 and 55), and imported Persian
objects were found by archaeologists (A. Manzo, 1998, 42). After the 6th century, when the
Aksumites had controlled the Red Sea and Southern Arabia, the Persian empire advanced into
the area, took over Southern Arabia and even seem to have landed at the African coast before
the expansion of Islam.

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 A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 14

34 Du Huan, quoted by P. Snow, 1988, 4.

35 Chinese Great Encyclopaedia, 1995.
36 Chinese Great Encyclopaedia, 1995. It also ignores that the country of Fulin, which is as
well described by Du Huan, is well identified (See footnote 30).
37 Shen Fuwei, 1980.
38 F. Hirth, 1885, 204-205.
39 Ibid., 46.
40 This hypothesis was established for many years, after Laufer had suggested it (B. Laufer,
1919, 339).
41 The Chinese scholar Shen simply notes : "This Christian kingdom was called "Molin" due
to its former belief in sea gods." (Shen Fuwei, 1980) The problem, that Mahrem was certainly
not venerated any more in that time, was solved with the following erronous argument : "The
cult of the sea of the Ethiopian peoples was the reason why the country became a seafaring
state. It is also due to this that in the 8th century, when Du Huan visited these areas personally,
Ethiopia was still called Molin."
42 H. Brakmann, 1994, 37 sq.
43 In this inscription, King Ezana (' Z N) calls himself a son of M H R M, whom he identifies
with the Greek god Ares. Later in the text, when he says that he has subdued the B G (the Beja
in today's Sudan and Eritrea), he speaks of sacrifices to the three gods' S T R (traditionally
connected with the heaven), B H R (connected with the land) and M H R M, see S. Uhlig,
2001, p. 26.
44 The Chinese scholar Tuam Ch'eng-Shih (in pinyin, Duan Chengshi, died 863 A.D.) is the
first to use this name for the Somali coast in his work Yuyang za zu ("Assorted Dishes from
Yuyang"), E. Cerulli, G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, 715.
45 Later this country's name changed slightly into "Bi-ba-luo". It is known as such in the acts of
the Kanton trade commissioner Chao Ju-Kuan (in pinyin : Zhao Rugua), Zhufanzhi, "Gazetteer
of Foreigners", 1225 A.D., who seems to rely on a work of Chu Ch'ü-fei dated 1178. Chao
describes their religion in words very similar to Du Huan's : "they serve heaven and do not
serve the Buddha", a conception also used by Du Huan to describe the monotheistic character
of religion. They compete "with each other for supremacy" ; even it is reported that before
marriage a husband-to-be had to bring a severed man's sex (P. Snow, 1988, 14) - a custom still
documented for the 20th century among the closely related Afar. The people produce camels
and sheep, dragon's saliva, elephant and rhinoceros ivory, much putchuk, liquid storax gum,
myrrh and tortoise shell. (Cf. E. Cerulli, G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, 715 : the country's name
is transliterated there as "Po-pa-li" respectively "Pi-pa-lo", in the pinyin transliteration it is
"Bo-ba-li" etc.). For more details, see P. Snow, 1988, 11-13, 14 and 16.
46 Quoted after P. Snow, 1988, 13 and J. J. L. Duyvendak, 1949, 13.
47 S. Munro-Hay, 2002.
48 H. S. Sergew, 1972, 196 sq. ; A. Manzo, 1998, 40 and 45.
49 Shen Fuzei, 1980, 52. More on this hypothesis see underneith.
50 A. K. Irvine, 1965, 178-196.
51 Another example has been identified recently by W. Hahn, 1999, 7. He describes an
ancient Aksumite coin of a king Noe around ca. 400 A.D. in which reference is made to the
"Abyssinian land" (X[OR]AS ABACCIN[ON]).
52 The exact connection of this territorial term with the South-Arabian 5th century B.C. ethnic
group HBST is still discussed among scholars. A. K. Irvine, 1965, 181 ; R. Voigt, 2002.
53 See A. K. Irvine, 1965, 182 ; cf. also the recent publication S. Uhlig, 2001, 16, on a trilingual
mid-4th inscription, which also mentions the HBSHT among the peoples governed by Ezana,
the king of the Aksumites (' K S M).
54 R. Voigt, 2002; cp. also the "Abasenoi" in ancient Greek sources, F. Hommel, 1926, 520.
55 There is another, later Chinese term, which had also been identified once with al-Habasha,
Ha-pu-ni, a place described by the travellers of the Cheng Ho fleet in the 15th century (cf.
J. J. L. Duyvendak, 1949). However, on a Chinese map it is close to Socotra and Aden and

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 A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 15

therefore should rather be identified with Ras Hafun on the Horn of Africa (cf. E. Cerulli - G.
S. P. Freeman-Grenville, 1960, 715).
56 Cp. the sudden stop of coin minting in the mid-7th century, H. Brakmann, 1994, 108.
57 Shen Fuwei, 1980, 46.
58 I have to thank Xi Yiyang, Hamburg, for this information.
59 Shen Fuwei, 1980, 51.
60 Compare also : "The inclusion of a Chinese in the party may have been intended to awe
them by exhibiting the vast range of peoples who were subject to Arab rule" (P. Snow, 1988, 4).
61 J. Tubach, 1999.
62 The idea that the coast of Molin described by Du Huan corresponded to the Eritrean coast
had been accepted after it had been suggested by Shen Fuwei and Philipp Snow. Cf. Shen
Fuwei, 1980 ; P. Snow, 1988, 4 ; F. Böckelmann, 1998, 264 ; S. Munro-Hay, 2002.
63 The Han dynasty sources on Huang-tchi, etc., might also refer to Africa, as we have seen,
but Du Huan is the first to clearly refer to an encounter with a black people.

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Résumé / Abstract

 
La curiosité géographique de la dynastie T'ang permit à des extraits d'un récit de voyage
du VIIIe s. rédigé par un officier militaire chinois, Du Huan, d'être conservés. Il est le
premier Chinois dont la présence en Afrique de l'Est soit clairement attestée. Son récit
mentionne plusieurs régions dont "Laobosa" (Abyssinie), évoquée pour la première fois dans
une source chinoise ancienne. Les doutes concernant la localisation d'une autre région appelée
"Molin" semblent pouvoir être levés aujourd'hui. Située probablement au nord de Laobosa,
elle correspondrait à la plaine côtière désertique de l'Erythrée et du Soudan actuels. Ce texte
livre de ce fait un des très rares témoignages contemporains sur le royaume axoumite tardif,
accompagné de brèves notations sur les coutumes des populations de ces différentes régions.

Mots clés :  récit de voyage

 
This article focuses on the first Chinese whose presence in Africa is clearly documented. Due
to the geographical curiosity of the T'ang dynasty, extracts of an 8th century travel report of a
Chinese military officer, Du Huan, were documented and preserved. He visited Arabian and
African countries. The location of Molin-guo, an African country, seems to be clarified today:
it appears to be located in the dry desert lowlands in Sudan and Eritrea. Likewise, this source
clarifies the location of another region: Laobosa appears to have been south of Molin-guo,
which is the first mention of Abyssinia in an ancient Chinese source. This text is thus one of
the very few ancient sources contemporary to the late Aksumite kingdom. Briefly, but with
significant details, the relevant peoples' customs are described, most of them still identifiable
today.

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 A Chinese in the Nubian and Abyssinian Kingdoms (8th Century) 16

Index géographique : Abyssinie

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